August 13, 2024, Issue #925 AHRQ Stats: Sepsis-Related Mortality Before and During COVID-19Between 2016 and 2019, the in-hospital mortality rate for sepsis was declining (14.4 to 11.9 percent of sepsis hospitalizations). With the emergence of COVID-19, the 2021 in-hospital mortality rate for sepsis increased to rates above those in 2016. In 2021, 1 in 6 patients with sepsis died in the hospital. (Source: AHRQ Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Statistical Brief #306 – Overview of Outcomes for Inpatient Stays Involving Sepsis, 2016 – 2021.) Today's Headlines:
 Three new data files from AHRQ’s Compendium of U.S. Health Systems are now available to provide researchers, policymakers and others with a comprehensive, first-time view of the U.S. healthcare landscape:
- The outpatient site linkage file provides data on more than 283,000 outpatient sites in 2022, including information on practice type, specialty and size. It indicates whether sites are located in medically underserved or health professional shortage areas.
- The nursing home linkage file includes 2020–2022 data on nearly 15,000 nursing homes, including information on location, system affiliation and ownership.
- The home health care linkage file provides 2020–2022 data on healthcare, home dialysis and home hospice providers. It includes information on location and ownership for nearly 13,000 home healthcare organizations.
The compendium is a product of AHRQ's Comparative Health System Performance Initiative. As a complement to the outpatient site linkage file, AHRQ has released a data visualization that allows users to filter data by state to indicate the proportions of practices that are corporate owned, owned by integrated delivery networks, or independent. |
 Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez, M.D., chair of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at the Long School of Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, is working to identify best practices for treating Long COVID. Long COVID comprises the symptoms and conditions that continue or develop after an initial COVID-19 infection. It has persistent and varying health effects. With AHRQ funding, she is expanding access to care for individuals with Long COVID, particularly underserved, rural, vulnerable and minority populations that are disproportionately impacted. Access more information about Dr. Verduzco-Gutierrez’s work, as well as profiles of other AHRQ grantees.
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 Between 2019 and 2022, health systems in the top 25 percent of telemedicine users experienced a more than 2 percent increase in the number of outpatient visits and an annual decrease of more than 14 non-COVID emergency department visits per every 1,000 patients, according to an AHRQ-funded study in Health Affairs. To help inform an ongoing debate on continued federal coverage of telemedicine services, researchers examined the relationship between telemedicine services and patient care utilization, care cost and care quality. They also found that while expenditures for patient care at these systems increased by $248 per patient each year, patients at systems that used telehealth the most reported greater adherence to both Metformin and statins. Researchers conclude that given the small improvements in access and quality combined with modest increases in spending along with patients’ and clinicians’ preferences, it would be difficult to restrict telemedicine payment in Medicare. Access the abstract.
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- Aug. 20, noon to 1 p.m. ET: Empowering Frontline Staff with Competencies for Patient Safety will highlight the need for strengthening understanding of evidence-based strategies to improve patient safety across healthcare settings. The event will highlight the University of North Texas Health Science Center’s efforts to use safety competency training at the university level. The webinar is sponsored by the National Action Alliance for Patient and Workforce Safety, a public-private collaboration established by AHRQ on behalf of HHS. Subscribe to the initiative’s newsletter and access tools and resources to improve care.
- Sept. 5, 2 to 3:15 p.m. ET: Research on Women's Health in Primary Care will highlight the important role of primary care in women’s health, featuring three AHRQ-funded researchers who are researching women’s health issues. The webinar, sponsored by AHRQ’s National Center for Excellence in Primary Care Research, aligns with the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research, which aims to fill research gaps about women’s health across the lifespan.
- Sept 10 to 12: Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS)-Household Component Workshop will provide information about MEPS data, practical information about usage of MEPS public use data files and an opportunity to construct analytic files with the assistance of AHRQ staff. The workshops are designed for health services researchers who have a background or interest in using national health surveys.
- Sept.11, 3 to 4 p.m.: Integrated Behavioral Health: The Journey to Becoming the Standard of Care, hosted by AHRQ’s Integration Academy, will feature National Integration Academy Council (NIAC) members discussing the evolution of behavioral health integration and its increasing emergence as the standard of care.
- Sept. 17, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.: Patient-Reported Experience and Outcome Measures in Research and Clinical Practice, sponsored by AHRQ’s Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS®), will explore the differences between these measures, how they are connected and how they can be used to measure and improve quality, safety, equity and value in healthcare.
AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network (PSNet) highlights journal articles, books and tools related to patient safety. Articles featured this week include:
Review additional new publications in PSNet’s current issue, including recent cases and commentaries and AHRQ’s WebM&M (Morbidity and Mortality Rounds on the Web).  A new issue brief identifies current evidence and best practices to inform patient-centered implementation of test result delivery though patient portals under the 21st Century Cures Act. The Act removed most restrictions to patients’ access of their electronic health information. Healthcare organizations now routinely make test results available within patient portals when results are finalized. Information was solicited through a scoping review, along with a series of brief qualitative interviews with subject matter experts. Access the issue brief and other AHRQ publications on diagnostic safety.
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Medicaid enrollees who were eligible through Affordable Care Act (ACA) expansion tended to be older and in worse health than those who were eligible before the ACA was passed, according to an analysis of data from AHRQ’s Medical Expenditure Panel Survey published in the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved. Researchers compared non-elderly adult enrollees who were previously eligible to newly eligible enrollees during two periods after the 2014 expansion: between 2014–16, and 2017–19. In both periods, higher percentages of newly eligible enrollees were aged 55 to 64 and reported being in fair or poor health compared with previously eligible enrollees. Despite these differences, healthcare spending was similar across the two groups over the 2017–19 period. Access the abstract. | AHRQ in the Professional LiteratureOhio presents opportunities for understanding hospital alignment with public health agencies on community health assessments. Cronin CE, Singh SR, Burns A, et al. Health Aff. 2024 Jun;43(6):873-82. Access the abstract on PubMed®.
Unlocking inpatient workload insights with electronic health record event logs. Burden M, Keniston A, Pell J, et al. J Hosp Med. 2024 May 5. Epub ahead of print. Access the abstract on PubMed®.
Health promotion of early and sustained allergenic food introduction for the prevention of food allergy. Iglesia EGA, Fleischer DM, Abrams EM. J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract. 2024 Jul;12(7):1670-83.e9. Epub 2024 May 23. Access the abstract on PubMed®.
Comparison of short-term health care utilization between telemedicine-delivered vs in-person care visits for heart failure. Casey SD, Sax DR, Mark DG, et al. JACC Adv. 2024 Jun;3(6):100969. Epub 2024 May 3. Access the abstract on PubMed®.
First-pass success of intubations using video versus direct laryngoscopy in children with limited neck mobility. Khanam D, Schoenfeld E, Ginsberg-Peltz J, et al. Pediatr Emerg Care. 2024 Jun;40(6):454-8. Epub 2023 Sep 27. Access the abstract on PubMed®.
The relationship between medication beliefs, patient activation, and self-rated health in patients taking oral anticancer agents. Hwang M, Cho Y, Gong Y, et al. Support Care Cancer. 2024 Jun 21;32(7):449. Access the abstract on PubMed®.
Variability in surgical approaches to hernias in patients with ascites. Cassidy DE, Shao Z, Howard R, et al. Surg Endosc. 2024 Feb;38(2):735-41. Epub 2023 Dec 4. Access the abstract on PubMed®.
Patient care in complex sociotechnological ecosystems and learning health systems. Tu SP, Garcia B, Zhu X, et al. Learn Health Syst. 2024 Jun;8(suppl 1):e10427. Epub 2024 May 29. Access the abstract on PubMed®. Contact Information
For comments or questions about AHRQ News Now, contact Bruce Seeman, (301) 427-1998 or Bruce.Seeman@ahrq.hhs.gov. |
